What's it like to work with a fractional leader?

October 17th, 2023

Written by Kara Barnes, Founder of Backstage Ops

A few years ago, Lisa decided to become a professional speaker. As someone who was motivated to make a difference, she felt passionate about sharing her message with the world.

The first few months were exciting, as Lisa learned to navigate the world of bookings, presentations, and client interactions. But a year or so into her journey, Lisa suddenly began to find herself spread thin, struggling to juggle all the admin that came with managing her speaking engagements.

Jimmy Fallon Animate GIF — Be honest. There's more to do than is realistic for JUST you...

Lisa knew that something had to give. She needed someone else to help her steer the ship while she continued to shine on stage. Her friend, Alex, also a professional speaker, suggested hiring a part-time business manager. But Lisa had some reservations…

Was this the right move for her speaking business? How would a fractional leader fit into the picture when she also had to allocate resources for sales and marketing?

If you’ve ever found yourself in a situation like Lisa’s, wondering about whether you should hire a part-time manager for your speaking business, this article is for you. We’ll walk you through the journey of bringing a fractional leader on board and help you understand if your business is ready for this step.

A strategic partner
Someone to manage your team for you
Your time will become sacred
Your business will feel more in line with your values
Leveraging the talent pyramid
But how can a manager be effective on a part-time basis?
Are you ready for a fractional leader?

A strategic partner

The first thing you’ll notice when you hire a part-time business manager is that you’ll have a partner in your business who is, first and foremost, strategic.

What does that mean? Well, consider that up until now, you’ve probably been working with folks who are executing tasks on your behalf, but aren’t really involved in setting the direction of your business.

That’s all about to change. A part-time business manager will be just as excited about working on the business (not in it!) as you are. What’s more, they’ll act as a sounding board for important decisions as your company develops, meaning you won’t have to shoulder that burden alone.

Someone to manage your team for you

We talk with a lot of visionary speakers who feel drained at the mere thought of managing their people. Ultimately, they just want to be on stage, inspiring audiences!

We get it. It’s not in the natural DNA of speakers (or any visionaries) to take the time to give their teams the feedback that’s necessary in order to get the most out of their people.

Managing even small teams requires patience, care, and attention that you may not always have to give...

And yet, most visionaries also understand intuitively that investing time and energy into their team is essential if you want to have a strong team for the long term.

So having a business manager come in as an intermediary is going to ensure that your people are getting the feedback they need to improve and to align their work more closely with your vision. Pretty neat, right? That, in turn, has a bunch of other helpful effects:

Your employee retention is going to go through the roof because your team will appreciate working with someone who’s responsive, understands the big picture, AND gives them space to act in their individual zone of genius.
Your staff will have a clearer understanding of what’s expected of them in their work, and as a result, more will be accomplished.
You’ll be able to leverage your talent in order to scale (rather than just your time!) because you have someone else there to manage and invest in your people.

Your time will become sacred

And speaking of your time, that’s going to suddenly feel a lot more sacred to your team when you hire a fractional leader as an intermediary. Why?

Part of the answer is scarcity. Because they’ll be managed day-to-day by your fractional leader, your staff will come to you less with questions, or when they need support. This means that interactions with you will become rarer. Think more like meetings once a month or once a quarter, as opposed to daily conversations.

Then there’s a mindset shift that comes with hiring a second-in-command. A good manager understands that your time is best spent on the stage, or on other visionary activities. So they’ll work with your people to ensure that any tasks that do reach you are as neatly pre-packaged as possible – so that they take up minimal time and attention.

An excellent manager will even train your team to think in the same way! Ideally, we want them to come to work with the mentality that their job is to support you – and make your life easy.

Let's get you back to enjoying your business...

Your business will feel more in line with your values

This is a counter-intuitive one. You’d think that your business would be more in line with your values if you did all the management, right? Not so fast.

The opposite is actually true: the more that you as the visionary are able to spend your time working on the business (again, not in it!), the more the natural flavor of your personality is going to be felt in the culture of the team. In other words, get away from process work and go lead! An effective second-in-command is going to manage your team in alignment with your values and desired direction.

Leveraging the talent pyramid

The creator of The Ops Authority, Natalie Gingrich, has an invaluable concept called the talent pyramid that I’m constantly sharing with clients.

Natalie Gingrich's (absolutely brilliant!) Talent Pyramid

The main idea is that there are four types of work: Visionary, Strategy, Management, and Implementation. You should never have a team member who touches more than two of those layers at once (easier said than done!). And if someone is touching two layers, they need to be adjacent to each other, so Strategy and Management, for example. Someone who’s doing Visionary and Implementation work at the same time is quickly going to end up feeling overwhelmed and/or the quality of their contributions will suffer.

We can use this model to understand another effect of bringing in a second-in-command. It’s going to free up your time so that you as the speaker only operate in your zone of genius: by being a visionary and setting the overall direction of the company. The more you deviate from your natural calling, the less efficient you become! Sound familiar?

But how can a manager be effective on a part-time basis?

Great question! Ultimately, a manager needs to be involved enough in day-to-day affairs in order to have a pulse on accountability. But here’s the thing: your manager isn’t going to be directly responsible for implementing or executing work! This means they’re still able to be effective in a part-time capacity, by running meetings, administering your project management system and CRM, organizing digital assets, and making sure your team members are set up for success.

Are you ready for a fractional leader?

If all this is making you want to pull the trigger on hiring a fractional leader, hold your horses! Not every business is in a position where bringing in a layer of management makes sense right away.

Here’s what you need:

Does your business have proof of concept? Ideally, this means you have a good flow of work coming in, together with regular leads.
Do you already have team members who are working on executing day-to-day tasks?

If you can answer both of these questions with “yes,” then there’s a good chance that bringing in a second-in-command will affect your bottom line directly. Namely by:

Increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of existing operations, sales and marketing
Improving the consistency and quality of client services to keep referrals coming in
Establishing an expense budget that closely aligns with your current values and initiatives— trimming down needless expenses along the way!

Are you ready to bring in a fractional leader for your speaking business? If that’s you, schedule a quick call – we’ll see if we can help!